A Rocky Mountain House mother is speaking out about an attack that left her seven-year-old son severely injured.
The attacked happened on Dec. 21, 2023. Trina Haskell, the mother of seven-year-old Joey Haskell said, “Joey was getting ready a little bit early to go out to the bus stop because he was excited to go hang out with his friends. His dad and I were sitting in the living room with a cup of coffee.”
Haskell recalls, it was shortly after 8 p.m. when her daughters went out the door and soon afterwards, one of Haskell’s daughters came through the door saying Joey had been attacked and was hurt bad.
“My husband and I put on our shoes and went running to the bus stop, which is about five houses down from ours and when we arrived on the scene, Joey was still unconscious. The gentlemen who had stopped and was detaining the boy, was on the other side of the road with his truck in-between where my son was and where the boy that assaulted him was.”
Haskell said it was a bystander who stopped the attack. She said they have met the man who stopped attacked.
“It’s not even the normal way he would take to go to work, so it was one of those right place at the right time and the right person,” noted Haskell.
Haskell said her family and even the gentleman who stopped the attack, believe the attack looked like it wasn’t going to stop on its own. And if it weren’t for the gentlemen who stopped, Haskell said it could be a different situation.
Joey suffered a severely broken collarbone with a 1cm displacement, which Haskell says hasn’t been healing properly.
“At some point he is likely going to have to have it re-broken and operated on. We just don’t know if that will be sooner or if they will wait a few years till he’s a little bit bigger in hopes that it won’t be such a huge displacement. The concern is he might lose some mobility in that shoulder, so it’s kind of a balancing act and we’ll be working with the pediatric orthopedic surgeon,” said Haskell.
Haskell notes that mentally, Joey suffers from nightmares, and is afraid to leave the house without his mom, dad or sisters. Joey also does not want to go anywhere alone and even concerned of going to school because the 14-year-old boy who attacked him, is out around town.
Haskell said, “It’s absolutely horrifying. There is such a feeling of helplessness that you feel like you failed, you feel guilty. It’s my job to protect my child and we failed at doing so.” Haskell added, this has also had an impact on her other children as well.
She says because of this incident, people are starting to find their voices about bullying stories from Joey’s experience.
Haskell shared that she believes the 14-year-old should be sentenced as an adult.
“If he is old enough to drive, he is old enough to know exactly what he is doing and he’s old enough to face the consequences of that,” said Haskell.
“I would just like to say to the Rocky Rams, what a phenomenal team, what a phenomenal organization. The things that they have done for our family and for our son has been mind blowing. Also, the gentlemen who stopped it, I firmly believe as does my whole family, that this gentleman saved my son’s life.”
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